The present invention relates to an improvement in the construction and operation of paper currency validators and, in particular, to mechanisms for insuring aligned passage of the bill through the validator.
Paper currency validators, sometimes commonly referred to as dollar bill changers, have come into wide use, for example, in retail establishments, airport terminals, train stations, libraries, and even casinos, where the acceptance of currency in exchange for goods and/or services is necessary and where professional change makers are unavailable.
Such machines, illustrated by the model IVO, manufactured by Coil Bill Validator, Inc. (CBV) of Deer Park, N.Y. are well known and commercially available. In these machines the currency is introduced along its lengthwise axis into a receiving slot and transferred through an elongated, narrow channel by a series of rollers and belts. During this travel, the currency is electronically sensed for its value as well as for its validity. If valid, it is passed on into a receiving stacker where it is stored to be later retrieved. If the currency is not valid it is returned and expelled through the inlet slot.
It is this introduction into a narrow slot and movement through a elongated narrow channel which gives rise to a problem which is both troublesome and costly. In the haste of making change and because of the lack of deftness and experience, a great number of users of the currency validators cause the bill to be introduced askew and not perfectly aligned. As a result, such bills tend to bind, crumple, and jam in the transfer channel during transfer by the belts and rollers. The user who is not aware of the problem tends to pull back the bill, causing it to rip, further aggravating the jam. A trained operator must then be called to unjam the machine and reset the mechanism. The result is loss of currency, downtime of the machine, and general annoyance.
It is, therefore, the object of the present invention to eliminate the foregoing problems.
It is a particular object of the present invention to recognize the introduction of a skewed bill and prevent it from causing the machine to jam.
It is a further object to provide a simple mechanism which may be inexpensively included in new machines or used in the retrofitting of machines already in the field.
These objects and advantages as well as others will be apparent from the following disclosure of the present invention.